Round Two

[captain_fucking_magic]

Harry's still rather new to this whole Milliways business, and it takes him a good while to accept the fact that he went through the front door from Perry's house, and has now gone back through that same door to find himself in a completely different house.

He's going to ignore the whole other country business all together. For now.

"That's, uhm... What the fuck?"

OK, he wasn't sure what was going to happen, but this was not it.

Comments

[captain_fucking_magic]

Hey, don't knock it. It's worked before with excellent results.

"Do I look like I watch rom-coms?" Harry asks. He's trying to sound macho, but failing a bit. Harry's never been good at macho.

"Hey, I won't get in trouble for being here, will I?" he asks. "Like, they won't ask to see my ID and then arrest me because I don't have any papers or anything, will they?"

Hey, when you've lived the sort of life Harry has, you learn to be cautious as hell about everything. How do you think he's still alive?

[mscontrarymary.livejournal.com]

"Only if you go to a police station and shout 'I have no papers and no idea how I got here!' I expect."
Mary slows down a bit.

"Contrary to popular belief, England is full of Americans who all think it's a great place to be and whatever. Even if we don't have grits. What are grits?"

[captain_fucking_magic]

"Kind of like oatmeal," Harry says. "But with corn."

Actually, it's more like Weetabix, but he's never heard of Weetabix.

"My mom used make them with breakfast. They're not bad, actually."

[mscontrarymary.livejournal.com]

"Ah, another cultural gap bridged." Mary says solemnly, leading them to a little corner-shop. "So is it sweet?"

She grabs milk, and then a few bags of sweets. If she gets bored she can just spend the evening seeing how many she can plant on Harry before he leaves. (Because the idea of him taking off the hoodie and scattering Smarties or Skittles across his scary flatmate's hardwood floor makes her giggle.)

[captain_fucking_magic]

"They can be, yeah," he says. "If you put like, honey or maple syrup or something on it."

He follows her into the shop and immediately shoves his hands deep into his pockets. He hadn't realised how nervous he was until stepping inside, and now it's all he can think about.

[mscontrarymary.livejournal.com]

Mary's a little distracted by shiny things, so she doesn't notice till they get to the counter that he's all hunched up like that. She touches his arm.

"You're not claustrophobic are you? Sorry, I didn't realise how little this place is."

It's about the size of someone's front-room, probably because once that's what it was, and a little bit of everything is shoved in with no real regard for whether it fits or was ever asked for more than once.

[captain_fucking_magic]

He shakes his head. "No," he says. "I'm just... wait outside."

And that's where he goes. He even manages to keep his hands to himself while he goes there.

[mscontrarymary.livejournal.com]

Oh dear. Another mental one. Mary finished up paying Mrs Singh, who's very deaf, and jogs out to meet him. She puts her hand on his arm, keeping it there this time.

"Are you alright?"

[captain_fucking_magic]

Harry still looks uncomfortable, but not nearly as bad as he was in the shop.

"Yeah. What'd you get? Anything good?"

His hands are still in his pockets. Just in case. Or something.

[mscontrarymary.livejournal.com]

Mary gives him a considering look, then evidentially decides a) his crazy isn't catching, b) he hasn't done anything too mental yet, and c) her British heritage demands she pretend there is no such thing as personal problems.

"Oh, a bunch of stuff. I figure if we don't hate each other by the end of the movie, we can make a night of it."

She holds out her hand to him, inviting him to take it. If he is a nutter, he really shouldn't be allowed to wander off, and if he's not, well, he's still cute.

[captain_fucking_magic]

He finally pulls his hands out of his (still empty) pockets, and takes hers. After all, it's only hand-holding. Nothing harmful about that.

"Well, that depends on if the movie scares me off or not. It might be weird watching some guy who looks like me."

He goes with her though, and doesn't even seem like he's about to wander off at all.

[mscontrarymary.livejournal.com]

"If it's weird we'll switch it off and find something else."

Mary shrugs. She sets a bit of a pace, because she's worried she'll miss the take-away delivery person. And then, because she's pretty nosy when she's not completely intimidated:

"So are you sure you don't want to tell me what happenened back there?"

Also if he's going to murder her and put bits of her down the sink she'd like some warning.

[captain_fucking_magic]

Harry gives her a look that says he'd rather not talk about it, but he doesn't feel like he has much of a choice.

"I steal shit. I told you that. Sometimes it's all I can think about."

He shrugs awkwardly, but doesn't take his hand away.

[mscontrarymary.livejournal.com]

"Oh."

Way to make it awkward. At least she knows he's not going to murder her. She slows down a bit as they draw near her place, swinging the shopping bag thoughtfully.

"Yes, but you didn't steal anything. And it's not like it'd be hard in there or anything. So, that's a good thing, right?"

She gives his hand a hopefully reassuring squeeze and hands him the bag to fumble for her key.

[captain_fucking_magic]

Hey, she asked.

"Yeah, I'm... I'm working on it. I don't even know why I do it. I just, you know, feel like I have to for some reason. Is that fucked up? I think it might be fucked up."

He shrugs as though this is a perfectly normal thing to be discussing.

[mscontrarymary.livejournal.com]

"It's probably a little messed up. But that's okay. Some of my favourite people are a little messed up. It's why I like them."

She pauses on the step to look him squarely in the eye (which the narration only comments on because that doesn't happen much to Mary step).

"What is it with the people I know not thinking they're any good?" With this cryptic comment, she kisses him on the cheek, (because he does tend to stand there like an idiot) gets the door open and leaves him to make his own way up the stairs.

[captain_fucking_magic]

"Huh?"

Well, he didn't expect any of that, so it takes him a few moments to catch up mentally before following after her.

"Wait, what did you mean by that? I don't--I mean..."

OK, he just doesn't know, apparently.

[mscontrarymary.livejournal.com]

"Bless." He's so cute when he's confused. It's like being friends with one of the animals out of Bambi or something. Maybe Flower? Having made up her mind to call Harry that at the very next opportunity, Mary offers him an open packet of sweets.

"Food should be here in ten or so. Want one? They're jelly babies."

[captain_fucking_magic]

"Jelly...babies?" He blinks at that one. "OK, that is fucked up, and I don't even know what it is."

He's not sure that he wants to. He still peers at the packet curiously, though.

[mscontrarymary.livejournal.com]

"They don't bite back you know. Eat the head first, that's my advice."

Mary takes a red one out of the bag and puts it in his mouth.

"Chew."

The door-bell rings, and she hands him the packet and runs downstairs.

[captain_fucking_magic]

Oh. Huh. It's just a really demented gummy bear, then. Not quite the same, but close enough. He takes a few more.

"Oh, is that the guy?" he asks around a mouth full of Jelly Babies.

[mscontrarymary.livejournal.com]

There's a muffled exclamation from Mary downstairs, and one might make out someone giggling and Mary sounding cross.

"...I hate you, I hate him, I don't care if you paid I'm going to stick that cane where not even Sherlock will find it..." She's definitely cussing someone out as she comes back up the stairs.

[captain_fucking_magic]

Harry's still going to town on those Jelly Babies.

"Everything all right down there, honey?" Harry calls down. "I can... help? Can I help?

[mscontrarymary.livejournal.com]

"...You know if you'd text I would have sent you a picture. This is worse than that time with the drag-queen called Morris--" Mary cuts herself off as she comes back in and attempts a smile.

"Harry, this is John. He's paid for dinner but don't feel the need to thank him. I'm going to kill him later anyway."

She waves a hand behind her.

[captain_fucking_magic]

"Oh. Uhm. Hi," Harry says. "Sorry, I didn't know that paying for dinner was a hanging offence. I'll be sure to let you pay from here on out."

You may want to take those Jelly Babies away from him. Really, he's like a child.

John, to his credit, is doing an amazing job at not laughing like a loon.

"Wow," he says. "Sherlock was right. He... yeah."

Harry blinks. "I what?"